This posts compares 5 of the best hassle-free, automated P2P lending options.

Managing peer to peer investments and doing due diligence on individual investments can become almost like a part-time job, where the extra interest you make is just compensation for your time spent. Let’s make a theoretical example of two investors with a £15,000 investment pot:

Investor A: Manual P2P Investor. Investor A spends an hour and a half a week logging onto a few different sites and having a read through project proposals and valuations. Once or twice a week they have the frustration of ‘Fastest Finger First’, where a really popular loan is released at a certain time and they have to be as quick as lightning to get a share. They also waste some time manually doing transfers between platforms and their bank. There’s no economic downturn and their hard work pays off with an annualised return/XIRR of 10%, or £1,500. They pay 20% tax on anything above the £1,000 tax-free interest limit which reduces it to £1,400. Total hours spent over the year: 90.

Investor B: Hands-Off Investor. Investor B spends a few hours setting up their investment at the start of the year but then barely check it afterwards. They make an annualised return/XIRR of 7%, or £1,050. Treating them for tax in the same way as investor A, this comes down to £1,040. Total hours spent over the year: 10

In this particular example, net of tax investor A earns an additional £360 for 80 hours more work, or £4 an hour. So, if you want to use an automated, ‘hands-off’, ‘fire-and-forget’ platform, which is the best one?

Hands-Off P2P Investment Comparison

Platform/Product

Target Return

Assetz Capital: GBBA, GEIA

7%

Bond Mason

7%

Funding Circle: Auto-Invest

6.9%

Growth Street

6.5%

Zopa Plus

6.1%

The following detailed comparison has been made in alphabetical order, rather than preference:

Assetz Capital: GBBA/GEIA, 7% Expected Returns

Assetz Capital have 5 different investment products. Of these, there are two of particular interest for hands-off investment. The GBBA account* offers a 7% return with a provision fund to cover against defaults. The GEIA account is almost identical but focuses on green energy investments.

Assetz Capital Pros

Start to earn 3.75% in the Quick Access Account from day 1, even while you are waiting for your investment to be lent out in the 7% account.

Loses covered by provision fund.

No fee for early withdrawal.

Minimum investment just £1.

Assetz Capital Cons

Maximum investment per loan can be as high as 20%.

Selling out: if there are no investors to take on your loans, you may have to hold them to completion. Some loans are up to 5 years.

Assetz Capital’s allocation algorithm means you have many transactional lines for small investments, which makes manual reconciliation difficult.

It’s not clear what happens if a loan you hold in a GBBA account defaults: how long until the provision fund will cover it? What if you want to sell out beforehand?

Note that the Assetz Capital link above, marked with a *, is an affiliate link where we get a small commission if you go on to join and invest in the site. This comparison was written objectively, with the link added as an after-thought.